San Simeon-Solvang 210 km

After a great day with a lot of impression we took in at Hamlet inn in Solvang a small Danish town in California. 

We started our day looking over a colony of elephant seals, that really made my day just looking at these big creatures laying, sleeping, screaming and fighting on the beach. 

After that we took a tour of the grand rooms of Hearst castle. William Randolph Hearst made his castle (inspired from Europe) on the enchanted hill overlooking the San Simeon bay. In its hayday in the 30's mr. Hearst entertained the celebrities in USA. The castle is a museum today and we walked the same grounds as Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin and many more did before us.

Now we are in Solvang for the night, the urge for real beer took us here. We had dinner at Solvang brewing company, they brew 12 kinds of beer. Arnstein had the danske pale ale and I had the blonde and blue eyed lager. 

San Francisco to San Simeon

We started our drive down highway 1 yesterday, drove 320 km. 

The view is amazing, rocky cliffs, big waves and of course the hillside. 

We had late lunch in Carmel-by-the-sea a high end small town that has a lot of art gallery's and design shopping. Probably most known for that Clint Eastwood was mayor here. If you're interested you can buy a house here for only 31.000.000$ 

We took in at a nice hotel in San Simeon and got a room with a ocean view. Today we are going to start with looking at a coloni of elephant seals that live on the beach and take a look at Hearst castle before we continue our journey. 

Napa valley

We drove up to Napa yesterday. The rain was pouring down so the drive took a little bit longer than expected. 

We visited two vineyards castello di amorosa ( the castle of love) where we took the grand tour down to the cellars and had a taste directly from the barrel, and merryvale. Very nice wines at both places. 

We ended our evening in the castro area in San Francisco for dinner and a drink. This is the gay community of SF and here Harvey Milk started the pride festival in 1974. It began as a Sunday afternoon block party and has grown into a global celebration for pride. 

Today we leave SF and head down the coast on highway 1. 

Celebrating

One year ago Arnstein went down on one knee and asked me to marry him. 

After a sunny day of sightseeing, fisherman's warf, farmers market, the height's, crissy field with a perfect view over the Golden Gate Bridge. We are planning an evening of walking around in Chinatown and Italian dinner in north beach. 

Arrived in San Francisco

After 24 hours of traveling we have settled in at our San Francisco hotel. After a trip to Walgreen and a liquor store we are having a midnight snack at the hotel. 

The snow has arrived

It started snowing on Monday and has been snowing ever since. Can't say that I will miss the snow for the two weeks we'll be away..

One week from takeoff

Car is reserved, getting more and more exited about our upcoming trip. 

Going to be sweet cruising around in a car like this one

Not 20 anymore

We celebrated our friend Jans 50 years b-day yesterday. Started at five o'clock, we were at home at 4:30 this morning. Great party, and lot of dancing. My body is well aware that although I feel like I'm twenty, it was awhile ago. 

So transporting a patient from Karlskrona to Lund was not exactly what I had planned to do at work today. 

Honeymoon

Honeymoon is booked.

We fly on January 31st to San Fransisco and spend few days there. Rent a nice car preferably a convertible and drive to Napa valley for some wine tasting and then highway 1 along the coastline to San Diego via L.A. and Santa Monica. From San Diego we're flying to Cancun for a few days of sunbathing and a risk for tequila tasting. 

2 weeks of traveling feels so perfect right now since king Bore finally decided to show up. 

My hubbie the politician

It's official Arnstein has left Nya moderaterna and started a new party with Nicklas. 

Back to reality

Start working in a few minutes after a wonderful week in Iceland. 

We spent new year in Iceland, first time for the girls and hopefully not the last. We did all the obligatory tourist sights like tingvellir, gullfoss, geysir and horseback riding, aswell as the not so obligatory as the Icelandic penismuseum and shooting range with Eirikur. We met family and friends and had a great trip. 

New family friend

Our new best friend, feeds our addiction for freshly brewed and grinded coffee

Christmas

For the first time I am done in time and can just enjoy these last days before Christmas. 

Have bought all presents, the tree and the house are decorated. 

Today we got a wonderful package from Norway, it had ribbe so we will get Norwegian christmasdinner. Thank you Nils and Marit. 

Countdown for Christmas

Instead of chocolatecalander I made a calendar with 24 different kinds of beer, red wine and sparkling wine.  Countdown for Christmas will be fun this year. 

Good way to start your day?

Some of us play computergames I play with a heart starter :-) 

A week in the navy

This week I was working with the navy, training rescue of submarines. Been batteling with both submariners and seasickness in the pressure chamber on board. It was a whole lot of fun with a great team of nurses and doctors and a fantastic crew. 

Children's CPR

Teaching CPR

Nice with 2 quiet days at work, meeting new people

Happy Halloween

Working on section number two

Swedish For Immigrants (SFI)

Living by SFI today, made applesauce from the apples from our garden. Baked cinnamon buns (with applesauce). Last weekend I made chips from our apples. The wonders of fall

I'm addicted

Love having nice looking nails

One section is up

Tgif

Putting the marquise up.

We've started putting up the marquise, one of three is up. 

Octoberfest all in

Germany

In Aichach at my cousin Raggi's and Verena's place, with Arnstein and Maggi, tomorrow  Octoberfest in Münich. More to come......